Bar draws vandalism and trash complaints

For Doug Mashkow, owner of CD Island on Merrick Road, the trouble all seemed to start in October, when a new bar, McFadden's, opened just down the street.

Now other business owners in the area are linking a recent rise in vandalism, garbage on the streets and public urination to the new bar and its patrons.

The incidents culminated in gunshots on South Village Avenue at 1 a.m. on April 15, when a fight that police said started inside McFadden's moved outside. No one was injured, but police, who found shell casings nearby, are still investigating.

“Since they opened last fall, there's been a marked increase in the amount of litter — beer bottles, cups, cigarette packs,” Mashkow said of McFadden's. “It's all over the neighborhood. There's been four window-smashing incidents. There's urine stains all over the storefronts. And it just seems that they don't seem to be containing their crowd.”

The window of Mashkow's store was smashed in March. In late April, a planter in the doorway of Master's Florist, owned by Laurie Speziale, was used to break the front window. And earlier this week, the glass in Master Florist's front door was shattered.

“My mirror [on the store van] was completely ripped off, twice the van was broken into and we found beer cans in it,” Speziale said. “I had six planters in front of my store — giant, heavy, cemented, chained-down planters. They've been turned over, plants have been broken, things have been ripped out of them.”

Speziale, whose store shares a rear parking lot with McFadden's, has found trash all over the lot. On weekends, she says, she regularly finds bottles and cans in the planters in front of her store, and she believes that McFadden's patrons managed to break two of them.

Shiva Gourdain, owner of the Blue Firmament Holistic Center, next door to McFadden's, said she has had similar incidents. The glass in her front door has been broken, and she has even found feces in front of her store.